


The Killing Emptiness

by Bookwyrm83



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Please do not read if you haven't seen Infinity War, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 00:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14580753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookwyrm83/pseuds/Bookwyrm83
Summary: The actions of Thanos can be felt all across the Universe, including the Discworld.  Here, even Death will know the consequences.





	The Killing Emptiness

**Author's Note:**

> Major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.
> 
> Written from the point of view of Death as he observes the cataclysm made by Thanos and the unique effect it has on his reaping duties (at least for this tale).

Death wandered the behemoth halls that contained the labyrinthine shelves of life-timers for all upon the Disc, meditative as he listened to the sounds of countless sands running through their respective courses to create a sort of ambient symphony. He anticipated several were going to run out this day and be replaced as life continued to evolve, many souls of whom he intended to give his personal attention. He stared at one in particular almost lovingly, perceiving that a good and full life was about to expire and knowing that a journey to the beyond by his personal touch would be the finale such a life deserved. What he did not anticipate was that the shelves suddenly grew quieter than they had ever been in his memory, life-timers randomly disappearing as if they had never existed, including the one he had just been watching. Except where there should have been new lives to take their place, only a glaring emptiness remained. And the number was growing.  
  
THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT, he said to himself and raced towards the library. As he approached the shelves of books that stretched for untold distances themselves, he looked around and saw books that were still actively writing the stories of their subjects were crumbling to dust, leaving an eerily similar void behind. It was happening at random and on a large scale, as if all life was fading away. Yet many still remained and seemed unaffected by the phenomena. He opened one such book and saw a tale of panic as this person witnessed what appeared to be the liquidation or erasure of crowds of people around them. He opened up a few more and the same tale appeared to be pandemic, though one book suddenly became dust in his very grasp. He shook his hands and wandered to his desk, sitting down to gather his thoughts. They were all perturbed and could not make sense of what he had witnessed. He stood up after a few seconds and began pacing back in forth with his arms crossed.  
  
"Master," called Albert from the doorway, "something is wrong. Half of your cats just disappeared and I...I don't feel well..."  
  
STAY CALM, ALBERT, said Death, YOU ARE SAFE HERE. I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT. THIS MUST BE THE WORK OF...ALBERT?  
  
His servant said nothing, just swayed in place as his body turned into a shape made of ashes that resembled him before billowing away into nothingness. There was no wind in Death's Domain unless Death willed it, yet his eyes did not deceive him. He stood staring at the door with his jaw open.  
  
SQUEAK! said the Death of Rats at his feet, in clear distress. SQUEAK. He was pulling his tail in his tiny hands.  
  
YES, said Death, IT APPEARS TO BE HAPPENING TO ALL LIVES. I SHOULDN'T FEAR, WE ARE IMMORTAL. I THINK WE ARE IMMUNE.  
  
SQUEAK. The rat was pointing to where Quoth had been sitting not minutes before but there was nothing left. He regarded his extension and a shared pain came from his voice.  
  
I'M SORRY. I KNOW THAT RAVEN WAS YOUR FRIEND. BUT WE MUST FIND OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING. COME.  
  
The Death of Rats ran up Death's robe and perched on his shoulder as the reaper made his way to the stables, grabbing his scythe with determination. He opened the stall to where he kept Binky but could not see him. He rubbed the top of his skull and set about searching the entire stables before checking the surrounding grounds for any sign that his horse had somehow gotten loose. Palpable fear set in when he could find no trace of him anywhere.  
  
SQUEAK! EEK-EEK, SQUEAK!  
  
He ran to where the Death of Rats had called from and saw him running rapidly in a circle, pointing in desperation. Pointing into Binky's stall where Death had first checked, into a corner of straw and mud that had other fine particles that weren't noticed before. Particles very similar to ash and soot. Death dropped his scythe as both arms fell limply to his side. He stared down at the Rat who was just as disconcerted.  
  
I KNOW I SAID I WOULD LET YOU STAY YOUR OWN ENTITY, he said with sadness, BUT I THINK IT IS BEST IF WE WERE REJOINED. PLEASE TELL ME YOU STILL HAVE THE DEATH OF FLEAS WITH YOU.  
  
SQUEAK.  
  
VERY GOOD. Death extended his hand and with reluctance, the Death of Rats crawled into his master's palm before being absorbed. Death clenched his fist and felt the reintegration lend him some vitality. He picked up his scythe and walked out of the stables, concentrating his energy on feeling where else on the Disc this was happening. The moment he did he felt the pain of the living crash into him with more pressure than a wave of molten lava, their screams like millions of needles piercing into his mind. Simultaneously, life itself seemed to be draining from the Disc, yet he could not sense any souls to reap.  
  
Somewhere in the distance he heard screaming of another kind, the likes of which he had not heard since the Apocralypse had almost been accomplished by the Auditors of Reality. And like proverbial devils, three appeared before him, shaking in their grey robes.  
  
"What is happening?" asked one.  
  
"Several of us are disappearing without a trace," said another.  
  
"Is this your doing?" said one.  
  
"It is in poor taste, if so!"  
  
"Yes, very...oh no."  
  
Two of them faded into ashes but where normally they would be replaced, only one Auditor remained.  
  
"What is happening?" it asked again with clear horror.  
  
I DON'T KNOW, said Death. TRUTH BE TOLD, I THOUGHT THIS WAS ONE OF YOUR SCHEMES.  
  
"Well it isn't," said the Auditor. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. No, I mean we're going to get to the - _damn it!"_ It imploded and was momentarily replaced by another. Death took a bizarre comfort in this.  
  
"There's only half of us left," it said, "and by the looks of things, it appears life on the Disc will share the same fate. We wonder if it will be the same for the World Elephants. If so, the best case scenario is that the remaining half will be on opposite horizontal ends."  
  
With that, the Auditor left Death to brood about this unexplained loss of life. Normally he did not feel dread when it came time to reap en masse for the Duty but this was wrong. He steadied himself in preparation but then heard a voice amidst the chaos. A voice that called for him specifically and by the name "Grandfather".  
  
SUSAN.  
  
He transported himself to Ankh-Morpork but for some reason found himself in the Unseen University. He then remembered that Death must always be present to take the soul of a departed wizard but at that moment, he never wanted to be further away from there. Yelling voices and various spells filled the air as the wizards reacted in violent panic to being disintegrated without warning, sprinting around and out of the buildings with no apparent direction in mind. His appearance only agitated them further but he had no time to listen to their grovelling. He walked straight past all and noted internally the disturbing lack of souls for him to take to the other side. The orangutan who was their Librarian charged towards him with his arms raised before his legs below the knees began to crumble away.  
  
_"Ook!"_ bawled the Librarian as he clutched Death's robes.  
  
I'M SORRY. THIS IS NOT MY DOING. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING, EITHER.  
  
"Ook." The pathetic sound barely made it out of the ape's mouth before the was nothing left to indicate he existed, except for traces of ash upon the floor. Ash that was everywhere, either covering the ground or floating in the sky on an imperceptible breeze before dissipating out of sight. Beyond the cries and crumbling bodies all other noise had faded away as if sucked out by a vacuum. As Death wandered out of Unseen University and into the city, he saw and heard it was truly the same everywhere. Many still lived and the Auditor's warning that only half would survive looked indeed to be the reality of the situation. He sensed a convulsion from the Cori Celesti and turned to face its direction, seeing from very far away plumes of what looked like white smoke floating from the citadel at the peak. Not even the gods were immune, it would seem.  
  
He stalked through the streets and saw people wandering around with faces of anguish, children calling for their parents, the lost and confused clutching one another in the hopes they too would not fade away. Random strangers grouped together to protect themselves, even as some still became as ash and nothingness. He felt pangs of guilt as he passed one little girl sitting in a pile of cindered remains with tears streaming down her dirtied cheeks, her screeching sending echoes of despair through an otherwise silent pocket of the road. Yet not one soul from the deceased. Not one indication that this calamity was anything less than a holocaust of unknown reasoning. This lack of reason disturbed Death the most.  
  
He eventually found himself in front of a school where children and teachers alike were gathered out front, a cacophony of frightened voices sounding from their groups. He listened out for one but could not detect her.  
  
SUSAN? he called, ARE YOU THERE? SUSAN!  
  
He received no answer and did not see her, so he went into the school, calling her name as loud as he could. His voice rang through the halls like the bells of a demonic church and was answered only with maddening quiet. He finally burst through the door to her classroom and saw her sitting in the middle of the floor, shaking and holding herself.  
  
SUSAN, IT'S ME.  
  
She didn't answer.  
  
TELL ME YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. SUSAN, LOOK AT ME!  
  
She turned to face him and he saw that her black streak of hair was now as white as the rest of it, her face dripping with sweat and covered with the ashes of the children who had disintegrated before her.  
  
"Half of them," she muttered hoarsely, "half of them gone in an instant. And you didn't come. You didn't warn me." Tears fell freely from her face as her lips trembled with every breath. "Tell me why, Grandfather. Damn you, tell me why!"  
  
I ONLY JUST LEARNED OF IT MYSELF. ALBERT. BINKY. SO MANY OTHERS. I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT.  
  
"We can," said an Auditor, who appeared before them in a blink. "Elsewhere in the universe, one has summoned the power to annihilate life. Half of all life in the universe, to be exact. Dispassionate. Completely by chance do you live or die. Not even the soul remains. Therefore, you have no Duty to perform this day. Not with the ones wiped clean from existence."  
  
FOR WHAT REASON? protested Death. WHAT JUSTIFICATION IS THERE TO DESTROY HALF OF ALL LIFE?  
  
"Balance," said the Auditor, seemingly indifferent. "This is something we strive for, something of which in normal circumstances we would approve. But we do not approve of being affected in the same way as the mortals. This is balance reasoned by insanity, as only a mortal driven by emotions would conceive." The Auditor vanished as quickly as it came, having done its work and leaving Death to his.  
  
"Grandfather," Susan pleaded, "do something. I can't bear it anymore. I can't do this. You have to make this stop."  
  
I…I CANNOT. NOT THIS TIME.  
  
She reached for him and he took her by the hand, only to watch it crumble before his eyes.  
  
_NO!_  
  
His head snapped up and saw her face grow pale, drying and crumbling as she too became a figure of ashes. A look of heartache and fear crossed her before there was nothing left, just particles of soot that blew into the air and disappeared almost immediately, leaving only traces behind upon the ground. He fell to his knees as his hands met the floorboards, scooping up Susan's remains as they trickled through his fingers like the lightest of sands. He shook his head and searched for her soul, in disbelief that even she too left no trace of her existence but seemingly inconsequential matter, just like everyone else who faded before the eyes of those they loved. He wanted to howl to the skies the most terrible sound ever to be uttered in all of eternity but was struck dumb, still as a statue and more helpless than he had ever been.  
  
He could hear the wailing of the city grow louder as half its life finished emptying into oblivion, and soon he could hear such wailing rise from all ends of the Disc, even from Azrael itself as deaths across the universe experienced the same devastation. The sounds of agony filling the void where life had been obliterated became too much for even Death to bear, and all he could do was kneel amongst the ashes his granddaughter had left behind, her particles having settled upon his skeletal fingers. He stared at what remained and felt a rage rising inside him, tearing at his essence for not doing something to prevent this unforeseen genocide, even if it was only to protect what family he had. It was not meant to end this way and it wasn't fair that he could not have given her eternity as he could've with her parents, for there was no choice in the matter. Not for her and he knew not even for him. The rage grew cold and what remained was like the heaviest stone the universe had ever forged, trapped in his midsection and holding him in place.  
  
OH GODS, Death whispered. His eyes flared and he vowed to find the one responsible.


End file.
